In 1755 LeRoy passed the electrical discharge of a Leyden jar through the eye orbit of a man who was blind from cataracts and the subject saw “flames passing rapidly downwards.” Ever since, there has been a fascination with electrically elicited visual perception. The general concept of electrical stimulation of retinal cells to produce these flashes of light or phosphenes has been known for quite some time. Based on these general principles, some early attempts at devising a prosthesis for aiding the visually impaired have included attaching electrodes to the head or eyelids of subjects. While some of these early attempts met with some limited success, these early prosthetic devices were large, bulky and could not produce adequate simulated vision to truly aid the visually impaired.
In the early 1930's, Foerster investigated the effect of electrically stimulating the exposed occipital pole of one cerebral hemisphere. He found that, when a point at the extreme occipital pole was stimulated, the subject perceived a small spot of light directly in front and motionless (a phosphene). Subsequently, Brindley and Lewin (1968) thoroughly studied electrical stimulation of the human occipital (visual) cortex. By varying the stimulation parameters, these investigators described in detail the location of the phosphenes produced relative to the specific region of the occipital cortex stimulated. These experiments demonstrated: (1) the consistent shape and position of phosphenes; (2) that increased stimulation pulse duration made phosphenes brighter; and (3) that there was no detectable interaction between neighboring electrodes which were as close as 2.4 mm apart.
As intraocular surgical techniques have advanced, it has become possible to apply stimulation on small groups and even on individual retinal cells to generate focused phosphenes through devices implanted within the eye itself. This has sparked renewed interest in developing methods and apparatuses to aid the visually impaired. Specifically, great effort has been expended in the area of intraocular retinal prosthesis devices in an effort to restore vision in cases where blindness is caused by photoreceptor degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age related macular degeneration which affect millions of people worldwide.
Neural tissue can be artificially stimulated and activated by prosthetic devices that pass pulses of electrical current through electrodes on such a device. The passage of current causes changes in electrical potentials across visual neuronal membranes, which can initiate visual neuron action potentials, which are the means of information transfer in the nervous system.
Based on this mechanism, it is possible to input information into the nervous system by coding the information as a sequence of electrical pulses which are relayed to the nervous system via the prosthetic device. In this way, it is possible to provide artificial sensations including vision.
One typical application of neural tissue stimulation is in the rehabilitation of the blind. Some forms of blindness involve selective loss of the light sensitive transducers of the retina. Other retinal neurons remain viable, however, and may be activated in the manner described above by placement of a prosthetic electrode device on the inner (toward the vitreous) retinal surface (epiretinal). This placement must be mechanically stable, minimize the distance between the device electrodes and the visual neurons, and avoid undue compression of the visual neurons.
In 1986, Bullara (U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,481) patented an electrode assembly for surgical implantation on a nerve. The matrix was silicone with embedded iridium electrodes. The assembly fit around a nerve to stimulate it.
Dawson and Radtke stimulated cat's retina by direct electrical stimulation of the retinal ganglion cell layer. These experimenters placed nine and then fourteen electrodes upon the inner retinal layer (i.e., primarily the ganglion cell layer) of two cats. Their experiments suggested that electrical stimulation of the retina with 30 to 100 uA current resulted in visual cortical responses. These experiments were carried out with needle-shaped electrodes that penetrated the surface of the retina (see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,933 to Michelson).
The Michelson '933 apparatus includes an array of photosensitive devices on its surface that are connected to a plurality of electrodes positioned on the opposite surface of the device to stimulate the retina. These electrodes are disposed to form an array similar to a “bed of nails” having conductors which impinge directly on the retina to stimulate the retinal cells. U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,049 to Byers describes spike electrodes for neural stimulation. Each spike electrode pierces neural tissue for better electrical contact. U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,088 to Norman describes an array of spike electrodes for cortical stimulation. Each spike pierces cortical tissue for better electrical contact.
The art of implanting an intraocular prosthetic device to electrically stimulate the retina was advanced with the introduction of retinal tacks in retinal surgery. De Juan, et al. at Duke University Eye Center inserted retinal tacks into retinas in an effort to reattach retinas that had detached from the underlying choroid, which is the source of blood supply for the outer retina and thus the photoreceptors. See, e.g., E. de Juan, et al., 99 Am. J. Opthalmol. 272 (1985). These retinal tacks have proved to be biocompatible and remain embedded in the retina, and choroid/sclera, effectively pinning the retina against the choroid and the posterior aspects of the globe. Retinal tacks are one way to attach a retinal array to the retina. U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,844 to de Juan describes a flat electrode array placed against the retina for visual stimulation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,155 to Humayun describes a retinal prosthesis for use with the flat retinal array described in de Juan.
In addition to the electrode arrays described above, there are several methods of mapping a high resolution camera image to a lower resolution electrode array. U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,989 to Eckmiller describes spatio-temporal filters for controlling patterns of stimulation in an array of electrodes. The assignee of the present applications has two related US patent applications: Ser. No. 09/515,373, filed Feb. 29, 2000, entitled Retinal Color Prosthesis for Color Sight Restoration and Ser. No. 09/851,268, filed May 7, 2001, entitled Method, Apparatus and System for improved Electronic Acuity and Perceived Resolution Using Eye Jitter Like Motion. Both applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Each person's response to neural stimulation differs. In the case of retinal stimulation, a person's response varies from one region of the retina to another. In general, the retina is more sensitive closer to the fovea. Responses are also very sensitive to the distance of the electrode array from the retinal surface. Any stimulation with magnitude less than the threshold of perception is ineffective in producing an image. Stimulation beyond a maximum level will be painful and possibly dangerous to the subject. It is therefore, important to map any video image to a range of stimulation values between the minimum and maximum for each individual electrode. With a simple retinal prosthesis, it is possible to adjust the stimulation manually by stimulating and questioning the subject. As resolution (number of electrodes) increases, it is tedious or impossible to adjust each electrode by stimulating and eliciting a subject response.
A manual method of fitting or adjusting the stimulation levels of an auditory prosthesis is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,642, Hochmair et al. Hochmair adjusts the auditory prosthesis by having a user compare a received signal with a visual representation of that signal.
A more automated system of adjusting an auditory prosthesis using middle ear reflex and evoked potentials is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,861, Faltys et al. An alternate method of adjusting an auditory prosthesis using the stapedius muscle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,360, Carter et al. A third alternative using myogenic evoked response is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,185, Maltan.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,894, Schulman describes a network of neural stimulators and recorders implanted throughout the body communicating wirelessly with a central control unit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,928, Whitehurst, describes an improvement on the system described in Schulman using function electro stimulation also know as adaptive delta modulation to communicate between the implanted devices and the central control unit.
The greatest dynamic range is achieved by setting the minimum stimulation at the threshold of perception and the maximum stimulation level approaching the pain threshold. It is unpleasant for a subject to first concentrate to detect the minimum perception and then be subjected to stimulation near the threshold of pain.
One major concern in the field has been that the amount of electrical charge needed to elicit light percepts might be too high to permit long-term stimulation without damage to the retina. A second concern is that the current required to elicit percepts may fluctuate over time, due to either neurophysiological change or damage to the retina itself, electrochemical changes on the electrode surface, or instability of position of the array on the retinal surface.
Previous short-term acute studies (lasting less than 3 hours) found that localized retinal electrical stimulation of blind subjects with RP and AMD resulted in discrete percepts, however the amount of electrical current required to elicit a response was relatively large compared to animal studies examining retinal responses to electrical stimulation. One likely explanation for these high thresholds is that it is extremely difficult to lay an electrode array flush on the retinal surface during an acute trial. However an alternative possibility was that the high electrical thresholds found in human trials were due to the effects of retinal degeneration which include both loss of cells and severe rewiring within the inner layers of the retina.
The human retina includes about four million individual photoreceptors. An effective visual prosthesis may include thousands of electrodes. An automated system is needed to adjust individual electrodes in a visual prosthesis for maximum benefit without the need for subject interaction in a long and difficult process.